Summoning NA on short notice provokes Opp

By Muhammad Anis

ISLAMABAD: The opposition members in the National Assembly on Friday protested against calling the session on a short notice after a gap over two months.

The PML-N parliamentarian Ahsan Iqbal and PPP legislator Syed Naveed Qamar, while speaking on points of order, said the National Assembly session was summoned on notice of less than 12 hours.

Ahsan Iqbal observed that the National Assembly had become a theatre and there was no sanctity of its proceedings. "The members are called on short notice like blowing a whistle and similarly the session is prorogued abruptly and unscheduled," he said.

Ahsan said the government was making a mockery of House. He pointed out that even sessions of Union Councils are called on 72-hour notice. "This is supreme constitutional institution the proceedings of which should set a benchmark for other institutions. The government wanted to run the house at whims without following the prescribed rules," he said.

Syed Naveed Qamar said he checked the National Assembly Secretariat at 9pm on Thursday but till that time, the session was not summoned. “It happened after 10pm when he came to know about notification to convene the session.” Mentioning that the parliamentarians have to reach from different parts of the country, Naveed said he was also present in his native town on Thursday night.

The Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan asked the opposition members to refrain from point scoring. He said that delay in holding the National Assembly was due to attitude of the opposition. "Had you not boycotted the proceedings, we would have summoned the session two months back," he said.

As per traditions, the first day's proceedings were adjourned without execution of any business due to death of MNA Noor Muhammad Shah Jilani. The House offered Fateha for departed souls of Noor Shah Jilani, Senator Kulsoom Parveen, ex-Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali, ex-Deputy Speaker Muhammad Nawaz Khokar, mothers of the opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif, Senator Sirajul Haq, ex-President Pervez Musharraf, martyred officers and soldiers of security forces in different incidents and others.